The Big Valley theme song kept running through my head as my husband and I gazed across the magnificent landscape of the Tetons on a recent vacation to Yellowstone National Park, a bucket list trip for me.  It's one of those places you must experience for yourself to f...

Those of you who have been in the studio with me over the past year may have heard me mention once or twice or hundred times that I am a new “GrAndie”.  Because our two- soon to be three- grandchildren do not live around the corner from us, our calendar has become a "f...

Is your drawing style similar to your cooking style?  Find out here...

My husband, Steve, goes to great lengths to make sure the bird population in our back yard is well taken care of.  We have multiple bird houses scattered around to accommodate the variety of feeding preferences, and he dutifully trudges through the snow all winter so t...

There was a discussion last week in an evening class about how important it is to look up from our computer screens, cell phones and yes, our drawing tables. Apparently our eyes need the "practice" of seeing not only what is up close, but also what is far away. I never...

Sometimes an image just needs to be super-sized.  It demands a space large enough to steal the immediate attention in the room.  For us colored pencil artists this can be quite a challenge because, Lord knows, we move a bit more slowly than artists of many other medium...

My mom used to casually tell me that "some days are better than others" whenever I had a little life crisis. That simple bit of wisdom recognizes that sometimes you just feel lousy, but it's not going to stay that way.

Read more here.

Remember when “clutch” meant a little purse or handbag?  It's also a verb to describe a tight grip.  I recently learned that “clutch” now means “I got this”.  “That’s clutch” means coming through at a pivotal moment, like a basketball player who shoots a three point sh...

OK, look at the difference here. See how the letters in the above title appear much brighter than the same colored words you are reading right now? Because of the strong contrast of the dark background, the bright letters above almost glow. This is one of the tools t...

What Goes Around, Comes Around
 
Growing up in a rural community, most of our shopping was done in town or through thick catalogs that would arrive seasonally in the mail. The "invention" of shopping malls and big box stores gradually changed all that, with their huge...